Making Classroom Assessments Reliable and Valid. Robert J. Marzano

Observations

       Student-Generated Assessments

       The Complete Measurement Process

       Assessment Planning

       Differentiated Assessments

       Summary

       Chapter 3

       DISCUSSING THE CA PARADIGM FOR RELIABILITY

       Discussing the Traditional View of Reliability

       Foundations of the Traditional Concept of Reliability

       The Concept of Error Score

       The Concept of True Score

       The Correlation Coefficient and the Reliability Coefficient

       The Conceptual Formula for Reliability

       The Reliability Determination Using a Single Test

       The Achilles Heel of the Reliability Coefficient

       Estimating True Scores Using Mathematical Models

       The Linear Trend Line

       The Curvilinear Trend Line

       The Average Trend Line

       Model Reconciliation

       Model of Best Fit

       Using Technology

       Discussing the Implications for Formative and Summative Scores

       Using Instructional Feedback

       Employing the Method of Mounting Evidence

       Considering the Issue of Scales

       Proficiency Scales as Inherently Ordinal

       Proficiency Scales That Are Internally Consistent

       The Strong Statistics Theory

       Summary

       Chapter 4

       MEASURING GROWTH FOR GROUPS OF STUDENTS

       Measuring Growth

       Linear Growth Score

       The Curvilinear Growth Score

       The Difference Score

       Reconciling the Three Reliabilities

       Using Technology to Help Teachers

       Summary

       Chapter 5

       TRANSFORMING THE SYSTEM USING THE NEW CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT PARADIGMS

       Transforming Report Cards

       Weighted and Unweighted Averages

       The Median and the Mode

       The Conjunctive Approach

       A Supplemental Measurement Topic

       The Practice of Allowing Students to Increase Their Scores

       Transforming Teacher Evaluations

       Summary

       Appendix

       TECHNICAL NOTES

       Technical Note I.1: Confidence Intervals

       Technical Note 3.1: Linear Trend Line

       Technical Note 3.2: Curvilinear Trend Line

       Technical Note 3.3: Trend Line for the Average

       Technical Note 3.4: The Method of Mounting Evidence

       Technical Note 4.1: Reliability of Linear Growth Scores

       Technical Note 4.2: Reliability of Curvilinear Growth Scores

       Technical Note 4.3: Reliability of Difference Scores

       References and Resources

       Index

      About the Author

      Robert J. Marzano, PhD, is the cofounder and chief academic officer of Marzano Research in Denver, Colorado. During his fifty years in the field of education, he has worked with educators as a speaker and trainer and has authored more than forty books and three hundred articles on topics such as instruction, assessment, writing and implementing standards, cognition, effective leadership, and school intervention. His books include The New Art and Science of Teaching, Leaders of Learning, The Classroom Strategies Series, A Handbook for High Reliability Schools, Awaken the Learner, and Managing the Inner World of Teaching. His practical translations of the most current research and theory into classroom strategies are known internationally and are widely practiced by both teachers and administrators.

      He received a bachelor’s degree from Iona College in New York, a master’s degree from Seattle University, and a doctorate from the University of Washington.

      To learn more about Robert J. Marzano’s work, visit marzanoresearch.com.

      To book Robert J. Marzano for professional development, contact [email protected].

      introduction

      The Role of Classroom Assessment

      Classroom assessment has been largely ignored in the research and practice of assessment theory. This is not to say that it has been inconsequential to classroom practice. To the contrary, the topic of classroom assessment has become more and more popular in the practitioner literature. For example, the book Classroom Assessment: What Teachers Need to Know is in its eighth edition (Popham, 2017). Many other publishers continue to release books on the topic. This trend notwithstanding, technical literature in the 20th century has rarely mentioned classroom assessment. As James McMillan (2013b) notes:

      Throughout most of the 20th century, the research on assessment in education focused on the role of standardized testing …. It was clear that the professional educational measurement community was concerned with the role of standardized testing, both from a large-scale assessment perspective as well as with how teachers used test data for instruction in their own classrooms. (p. 4)

      As evidence, McMillan (2013b) notes that an entire issue of the Journal of Educational Measurement that purported to focus on state-of-the-art testing and instruction did not address teacher-made tests. Additionally, the first three editions of Educational Measurement (Lindquist, 1951; Linn, 1993; Thorndike, 1971)—which